How Can CIOs Rethink Their IT Strategy for the New Way of Working?

Nearly two years after the world came to a standstill, many companies have returned to the office, but there’s no going back to the way things were. As workplaces reopen, more businesses than ever are looking to transition to a hybrid work model.

It sounds ideal: With the shift to hybrid work, companies can offer the flexibility that employees want while restoring the in-person interactions that are key to collaboration and transparency.

But for all the problems it promises to solve, hybrid work also raises complex questions around technology and its integration with the people and organizations it serves. How do you keep your networks secure? Promote an engaged and inclusive culture? Properly upgrade your infrastructure to deliver on the work-from-anywhere promise?

The answers can’t be found in quick fixes or “one-size-fits-all solutions,” says Jacqueline Guichelaar, Group Chief Information Officer, Cisco. “Designing for the new hybrid workplace needs to be a sustainable model rather than a temporary one.”

Here are five myths about implementing a hybrid work model, and what CIOs can do to transform their IT strategies to fit the new way of working.

Myth #1: Collaboration Tools Allow Employees to Be Productive at Home

“Not all collaboration tools are created equal,” says Guichelaar. “And not all people work in the same way. Poor collaboration tools can lead to stark imbalances in employee engagement, which can hinder productivity and hurt morale.”

Cisco’s 2021 Hybrid Work Index, a unique global report based on millions of aggregated and anonymized customer data points and supplemented by third-party research, found, for example, that almost half of 650 million monthly meeting participants were not speaking in meetings.

This stat underscores the need for collaboration tools that go beyond the basics, with participation capabilities that don’t depend on voice, such as gesture recognition, polling and real-time transcription and translation.

The goal, Guichelaar says, is to make “best-in class engagement capabilities available to everyone,” regardless of how or where they work. At the same time, physical offices will have to evolve to optimize collaboration, becoming more than just a place to go do email.

“The solutions,” she says, “must be flexible, adaptable and open to what works best for each individual and team.”

Myth #2: Employees Within the Company Network Should Always Have Access to All Systems

As the corporate perimeter has expanded to include home and public networks, the potential for cyberattacks has also increased. In the past 18 months alone, Cisco’s Hybrid Work Index shows that organizations have seen a 2.4-fold increase in malicious access attempts as bad actors seek to exploit weaknesses in cyber defenses. In this brave new world, securing remote access is essential, but Guichelaar warns that traditional protective measures no longer suffice.

Cisco has responded by adopting a Zero Trust strategy across its broad range of applications. This holistic approach requires the continuous validation of users and devices at every access point, using measures such as multifactor and biometric authentication as well as role-based policies to ensure that users get only the level and scope of access they need.

When deploying Zero Trust, Guichelaar emphasizes the importance of integration, so users get the same experience whether they’re working in the office or remotely, using cloud or on-premises tools. Enabling easy integration of applications and endpoints means “we can secure access across our applications and our network while continuing to support a hybrid work environment.”

Myth #3: Our Existing Networks Can Handle Our Growing Connectivity Needs

In the past, much of a company’s data was stored centrally on premises, with access provided via a DMZ (“demilitarized zone”) sub-network, typically also on premises, with relatively few internet connections to the outside world. But today’s hybrid, multi-cloud IT environment demands a much more agile and scalable approach.

One way companies can address growing connectivity needs is to adopt a “cloud edge” strategy—taking infrastructure and security capabilities that once resided on premises and co-locating them in carrier-neutral facilities. “Our global cloud edge enables our network to rapidly respond to business needs,” says Guichelaar.

Myth #4: In a Hybrid Work Model, the CIO’s Job Remains Essentially the Same

Gone are the days when CIOs simply focused on functions like providing the right software-as-a-service (SaaS) tools, data centers and public cloud hosting. In a hybrid work model, CIOs must evolve their roles to embrace a comprehensive data and architecture strategy and transform their IT infrastructure to support hybrid, multi-cloud capabilities. “We must get the architecture right,” Guichelaar says.

Digital agility is key to a successful hybrid work model. Employees should have a consistent experience across various environments: on premises; public clouds; private clouds; and SaaS. Applications can provide a better user experience by harnessing the power of analytics, insights and automation. And employees should be able to securely access applications and data no matter where they are.

This transformation often means rethinking old paradigms. For example, the “hub and spoke” VPN (virtual private network) approach of dragging all traffic on premises first before routing externally isn’t efficient for hybrid cloud workloads. Instead, companies might consider expanding their use of VPN split-tunneling, allowing some traffic to be encrypted and giving other traffic direct access to the internet.

Myth #5: Rolling Out a Product Roadmap for Hybrid Work Will Be Quick and Inexpensive

Big changes aren’t simple, and they don’t come cheap. In a recent Cisco study of digital agility, more than 50% of CIOs and IT leaders said they are investing more than half their budget on multi-cloud infrastructure, network security, collaboration technology and cloud applications. Cisco’s own annual research and development budget is around $6 billion (about 12% of annual revenue), the bulk of which supports the evolution of hybrid work-related technologies.

The focus is on the long haul. “The last two years,” Guichelaar observes, “have shown us that transformation isn’t a predictable, one-time event.”

To get past these common myths of hybrid work, CIOs should look toward sustainable solutions, built on strategies that meet the demands of today—and the challenges of tomorrow. “You need to build digital agility so you can rapidly pivot to meet the needs of customers and respond to changes,” says Guichelaar.